Thomas E. Heftler ’65

On the morning of June 23, 2007, while bicycling in Southampton, N.Y., Tom Heftler was struck and killed by a drunk driver.

A cum laude graduate of New York University Law School, Tom was a longtime partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, a 350-attorney firm based in New York City. A noted specialist in derivatives and commodities, he served for many years as the firm's managing and then co-managing partner. He was a founding director of the not-for-profit Migraine and Pain Fund.

Cycling was only one of Tom's passions. A renaissance man for our time, he was an outstanding photographer (after learning demanding studio work as an apprentice, he considered leaving law to pursue it). A lifelong ham radio operator, he could and did fix anything electrical or mechanical, a talent that, in his Princeton years, he brought to WPRB, where he headed the technical side. Memorialized by his colleagues as "a brilliant lawyer and a gentle soul," Tom was funny, deeply humane, humble, and remarkably modest. His joie de vivre was thoroughly infectious.

Lois Weinroth, Tom's wife of 30 years and also a partner at Stroock, sons Daniel and Jeffrey, and three grandsons survive him. The class extends its sympathy to the family.